On Thursday, ReasonTV uploaded a new video featuring John Stossel.
Stossel begins the video with the following: “The Supreme Court is about to decide: Do you have to pay union dues if your workplace is unionized? When I worked at CBS and ABC, I had to. I was told: ‘This is a union shop; you must pay up.’ But now the court may say for government workers, that’s unconstitutional.”
Over the course of the video, Stossel speaks with teacher Rebecca Friedrichs, who sued the California Teachers Association, as well as Steve Kreisberg, a representative for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).
“Rebecca got mad at her union during the last recession. When she tried to save some teachers jobs by getting all the teachers to take a slight pay cut,” Stossel says.
STOSSEL: They were willing to take a cut?
FRIEDRICHS: Absolutely [they] were willing to have that discussion. And all of America was taking a pay cut pretty much – why should we be any different?
But Stossel notes that “the union wouldn’t even allow her to survey the other teachers.”
FRIEDRICHS: They said absolutely not – would not let me send out that survey. They told me: “Rebecca, don’t worry about those teachers who are going to lose their jobs, the union’s going to take care of them. We’re going to give them a seminar on how to get unemployment benefits.”
Rebecca sued the California Teachers Association, and the case went all the way to the Supreme Court. However, upon the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, the court deadlocked, sending the judgment back down to the lower court. The union won – but that’s not the end of the story. Another government employee, Mark Janus, filed a separate lawsuit that, like Friedrichs’ before it, has made its way up to SCOTUS.
Stossel’s then speaks with Kreisberg, the rep for AFSCME:
KREISBERG: It’s his right to dissent and not be a member of our union. He only has to pay the fees. …
STOSSEL: But what’s the point in that if you have to pay? That’s the main reason he doesn’t want to join. He doesn’t want to be forced to pay for something he doesn’t agree with.
KREISBERG: Well, I’m not sure if he doesn’t agree with it, or he simply doesn’t want to pay because he’d like to get those services for free.
Back with Friedrichs, Stossel plays devil’s advocate: “The union could say: ‘We are bargaining for all you teachers. If you don’t join the union, you’re a free rider.’” Friedrichs replies, “I never asked for their representation.”
STOSSEL: All right, but you’re getting it, and presumably benefiting.
FRIEDRICHS: If I saw their representation as a benefit, then I could agree with that. But I don’t see it as a benefit. Their benefits aren’t worth the moral costs.
Hearing Friedrichs’ statement, Kreisberg says, “To me, that sounds like the words of a right-wing activist, not the words of a teacher.” Stossel hits back: “She was a teacher who got together with other teachers and said, ‘Let’s take a pay cut so nobody has to get fired,’ and the union said, ‘No, you may not even put that to a vote.’”
KREISBERG: They elected somebody else. So she has no more right to call a vote than Hillary Clinton has the right to conduct foreign policy for the United States of America.”
STOSSEL: Thomas Jefferson believed that “to compel a man to furnish contributions … for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves … is sinful and tyrannical.”
KREISBERG: Thomas Jefferson had no sense of 21st century labor relations.
Stossel concludes the video with the following: “Now the Supreme Court will decide. Oral arguments are scheduled for Monday. The court will announce its decision sometime this summer. I hope they’ll see it the way Jefferson did. Forcing someone to pay for something they don’t want is tyranny.”